Draconic Vampire : Curse of the Blood

Chapter 105: Fixing the Problem

The new information shattered Keith’s preconceived notions. He never imagined that humans had this kind of legacy hidden in the past. 

“Is this what you wanted to know?” Mr. Visit asked.

“Yes, I was just curious about the documents and wanted to confirm my theories. I learned quite a lot thanks to you.” Keith slightly nodded his head.

“Seems like my free time is over.” Mr. Visit wanted to say something, but the golden plate finished the rune-making process, so he immediately turned his head around to attend it.

“Thank you for sharing it with me. I will take my leave then.” Keith said to Mr. Visit, but there was no response. The blood ritualist was immersed in his own world.

Kieth left the lab silently and headed to the training facility.  The thought still lingered in his mind. With the new piece of information, many new opportunities opened.

“Brother Kieth, you’re here. Don’t you have blood summoning class today?” Sen spotted Kieth enter the training chamber and approached him.

“I got a leave for completing my first phase of the blood summoning technique,” Keith replied with a smile.

“So you will be training here for the say?” Garion walked over and entered the conversation.

“For one hour… I need to go to the registration office.” 

“Registration office? Are you applying for something?” Garion asked.

“The bronze hunter’s license. I need to go out of the academy, so I need the license.” Keith replied.

“But the requirements are viscount and two years study experience as far as I can remember.” Garion stroked his chin as he tried to remember.

“I know I don’t meet the requirements, but someone is helping me so I just need to evaluate my strength and I can get the license.

“That’s convenient. I wish someone would sponsor us like that.” Sen said with a sigh.

“You guys don’t have enough strength to hold back high-level beasts, not even I am safe out there. I am going because I  have a special technique that helps me avoid powerful beasts. Also, I am much stronger than regular viscounts, so I can stay alive longer.” 

Keith knew how dangerous it was for the barons to enter the blood forest. In the blood summoning class, he saw the horde of beats that attacked the students. They were kept in a closed environment and specially selected to match the strength of the students.

In the blood forest, there was no governing body and the level of the beast was uneven. If a more powerful herd made its way through to the students under viscount stage, there was a slim chance they would make it out alive.

This was the reason, it was strictly prohibited for barons to enter the blood forest. They were simply too weak to deal with powerful beasts.

“Keith is right. If we go out with our current strength, it will be suicide. The hordes have baron-level beasts and some hordes have viscount-level beats. If we encounter a horde  with multiple viscount level beasts, you can imagine the rest.” Garion glanced at Sen.

Sen gulped and understood the meaning. They would become the prey of the beasts in an instant.

“So how is your implementation holding up? Any problems there?” Keith changed the topic and asked them about their new warrior frames.

“They are great. I found no issues with the implementation and my strength has increased significantly. My frame feels much more robust than before.” Sen replied immediately.

“Looks like your implementation worked fine. Still, we need to push the frame to its limit to see if there are any inconsistencies.” Keith began scanning Sen’s body and took note of the changes in his warrior frame.

He was surprised that Sen implemented the warrior frame perfectly without any problems. On the other hand, Garion didn’t look that happy. 

“Did you encounter any problems?” Keith asked, seeing his slightly gloomy face.

“The frame itself was fine, but my martial arts doesn’t go well with the changes. The frame feels solid but I can’t practice my martial arts techniques with this frame. Looks like I have to go back to the previous frame.” Garion sighed with displeasure.

‘The martial arts are incompatible with the warrior frames.’ Keith thought.

[ This may be due to the specifically designed martial arts for a particular warrior frame. The martial arts might be optimized for the exact structure of the warrior frame and any slight variation will change the techniques.

I fear your family martial arts are also designed specifically for your warrior frame. If you change the structure, you can’t practice the martial arts.]

‘So how can we avoid this? We need to get stronger and for that, we can’t rely on the count-level warrior frame. We need more powerful warrior frames in the future.’ Keith voiced his concerns.

[ I’m thinking about it as well. There are two options for this. Firstly, we use different martial art with the new warrior frame or we change the warrior frame carefully with enough research to be compatible with the martial arts.]

‘We can’t analyze the martial arts without fighting with the opponent for a long time. It took me days to get acquainted with uncle Brad’s martial arts, and for that, I had to get beaten up repeatedly for hours.’ Keith raised his eyebrows remembering those days.

[ I think it will be better if we proceed with the second option. Changing the martial arts will be harder because it’s not as accessible as the warrior frame. If by any chance, we get hold of any improved martial arts in the future, we will use that. Until then, tweaking the warrior frame according to the martial arts is the right option. ]

Keith nodded his head and looked at Garion.

“Hold on! I need some time, but I can make the warrior frame compatible with your martial arts. Don’t revert back to the previous frame yet.” 

Garion looked delighted as he heard this. 

“Honestly, I don’t want to go back to my previous implementation. This is much stronger and robust than that. If I could, I want to keep using it. Solving the compatibility problem with my martial arts will be enough.” Garion nodded in agreement.

For the next hour or so, Keith analyzed Garion’s warrior frame and tried to find which parts were making it harder for him to use the martial arts. Garion performed his martial arts, each and every move. 

Haah!

The pain caused by the incompatibility was apparent as he struggled to keep up the moves. But he had faith in Keith so he didn’t budge and completed all the moves. By the end of it, He was lying on the floor face-up, exhausted to the brim.

“Sorry for the trouble, I know it must’ve hurt doing the martial art moves on top of the incompatible warrior frame.” 

Keith got all the information he needed and was analyzing the data. The changes were minimal to the warrior frame, but the two extra joints changed the order in which the martial arts was supposed to use that region.

It was like this, the martial art was designed for a specific amount of joints that were present in the frame. When Keith revised the frame and added additional joints, the martial arts couldn’t determine which joint was applicable for that move.

The technique switched between one joint to another and hence created this friction that caused the other moves following it useless as well.

The solution to this, according to the system, was to merge the joints or create a blood-qi connection between the two joints that could incorporate both joints and treat them as one. The other solution was to shift the joints to a different part that doesn’t get used by the martial arts.

The system chose the first solution because, with the second solution, the output of the frame will decrease. The joints are present in the place where they are supposed to be. Changing their position just to accommodate the martial arts was not a good idea. What’s more, the joints weren’t supposed to stay there.

If the extra joints in the wrist or shoulders of the frame were shifted to the knees or ankles, it won’t have the same effect as before. Even with an extra pair of joints, the overall output will decrease.

So the system started to implement the first solution and revised the warrior frame to add an extra layer of blood-qi connection that will make both joints behave like one, so it will be compatible with the martial arts.

“Brother Keith is doing so much for us, we need to repay his kindness as well,” Sen spoke as he looked at Keith, who was sitting cross-legged, eyes closed and immersed in his technique.

Garion got up after catching his breath.

“You’re right. We need to double our efforts and reach the viscount stage as quickly as possible.” 

Keith opened his eyes and sighed deeply.

“It was harder than I thought.”

Phew!

“You fixed the problem?” Garion asked enthusiastically.

Keith smiled in response and took out a scroll and started engraving the revised frame.

“This will fix the problem. Now, I know why the martial art was incompatible with the frame.”  Keith handed him the scroll.

“Basically, the joints in the frame were in a different orientation and two more were added, so the technique couldn’t distinguish between the two. I fixed the issue by creating a layer of blood-qi that wrapped the two joints and connected them. So the technique will see it as one joint as opposed to two.

But this won’t change their functionality or the output of the frame.” Keith declared proudly.